Onward
by anotherFMAfan
Summary: Roy receives an alarming reminder that in life, there are no guarantees. AU. RoyXEd, AlXWinry, Yaoi, light Het. Warning for sex references and lots of fluff.


AU: Al restored, no CoS.

_Onward_

Roy Mustang knocked softly on the door and pushed it open a crack to peer inside. Edward was indeed awake and sitting up, so he opened the door fully and stepped inside.

"Hey," said Ed, smiling wearily.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, closing the door most of the way behind him and coming to sit beside Edward on the bed.

"Still shitty, but better."

Roy slipped one arm around his back and hugged his left side gently. He didn't know how much pain Ed's right side was in, or if touching it could make it worse, so he carefully avoided it. Ed let out a sigh and wrapped his flesh arm around him in return. Roy tried to avoid thinking about the circumstances that had necessitated this trip, because Roy Mustang didn't cry, but his eyes had an alarming habit of watering when he thought on it.

Of all the close calls Edward had in his life, it was not the closest. Of all the pain he had ever borne in his life, it was not the most painful. But Edward was no longer a rash boy, barreling headlong into the future in search of an impossible goal; he was a man with his own house, a partner, and a career. Danger was not his daily companion, and he no longer regularly brushed shoulders with death. Things had been different when he was younger- Roy had played a different role- but he had never been able to bear seeing him hurt. Especially when in the course of protecting Roy….

The general pressed a kiss to his love's hairline, trying to ignore the tightness in his throat. He was safe now, and that was all that mattered. Safe and well on the way to recovery, Pinako had said. They'd forbidden him and Alphonse inside the room while the surgery was taking place, but the terrible reality of how much pain Edward was in had permeated the house like a plague; a thick and silent tension that had even Den whining in distress.

Half of his Automail port had been ripped off.

Roy wasn't even aware that could happen until he'd come upon him, lying in the wreckage of what had once been their house, unconscious and bleeding more than such a little body should be able to hold. The twisted metal remnants wiggled back and forth like a loose tooth when he'd tried to wrap the raw flesh, and just the memory of it made Roy sick to his stomach. The surgery had taken four consecutive days, and Pinako had told Roy that, in order to find the nerve endings for the new port, they'd had to extend the metal even further over previously whole skin. It had been another four days before he'd been allowed in to see him, and Roy couldn't help but be once more amazed by his resilience. Ed had told Pinako he'd be ready to leave in only a few weeks, when it had taken him a year to adjust to it the first time he'd had ports installed.

"What are you thinking about?" asked Edward, pulling him out of his thoughts.

"What an amazing person you are," he murmured against his hair.

"Liar," he snorted, and pushed away from Roy's hold to look him in the eye. "You're thinking about something stupid like putting armed guards around the house or getting bodyguards or something."

Roy smiled.

"Good idea."

"Don't be a moron," Edward snarled. "They'd just be useless anyway. No idiot lieutenant was going to stop that psycho."

"You're probably right," he conceded.

"Hmph. Of course I'm right, I always am."

Roy smiled, appreciating Edward's attempt to make him feel better. For some reason he always thought acting like his former bratty self was the best way to defuse emotional situations.

Edward tilted his face up and closed his eyes, and Roy took the hint. They kissed gently for a moment or two, and then Roy leaned his head against Ed's.

"I was terrified," he told him softly.

"You're a pansy," Edward whispered back teasingly, and Roy smiled. He took Ed's flesh hand in his own and squeezed affectionately.

"You don't have to be scared," Ed promised gently, and put his cool metal hand to Roy's cheek. The general nodded, holding his beautiful eyes with his own for a moment before his attention shifted to Edward's new- and quite shiny, for the moment- Automail.

"Does it hurt to touch?" he asked, and Edward shook his head.

"Not if it's you," he told him honestly. Roy's mouth quirked in amused inquiry as he very slowly and carefully brought his cold right hand down into his own. "You've never hurt me. You're always gentle, even when I don't want you to be." Roy's smile widened at that, and Ed returned it.

"I love you."

"I love you, too. Always."

They kissed again, briefly, and Ed laughed.

"I'm getting mushy in my old age," he joked, a little embarrassed.

Roy lifted Edward's hand and gazed lovingly at it.

"Thank you for saving the love of my life," He told it, making Ed snicker, and brought it to his lips to lay a kiss on the untouched metal.

"_GET YOUR FILTHY MOUTH OFF OF MY AUTOMAIL!"_ Came an ungodly shriek from the doorway, making both of them jump. They turned to find a furious struggle between husband and wife taking place behind the door, visible only through the crack that Winry had used to witness said atrocity against her masterpiece. There were some harshly hissed words, and then Al's face appeared for a moment to smile and offer an apology. It was hardly audible above Winry's assertions that she didn't even want to _know _where Roy's mouth had been, to which Edward promptly retorted that in that case she certainly didn't want to know where Ed's Automail itself had been- and was going to be, and Al had to drag the beside-herself Mrs. Elric back through the doorway and close it with a bang.

"If you'll keep her out there, Alphonse, we'll go ahead and christen it now," Roy called, and the couple laughed aloud at the indignant, incoherent shout of rage it caused.

Edward looked so beautiful in mirth, and Roy admired the sight for a moment before their eyes met once more and he leaned over to steal another kiss.

"Knock it off, bastard, we've got the rest of our lives," Edward said, and contradicted himself outright by leaning forward for one more.

"Nothing wrong with getting a head start," Roy replied. Wrapping his arms around Ed, he prayed this was the last time either of them would need such reassurances.


End file.
